Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is currently looking for a new defensive line coach. That is because he just lost his to the NFL. Mike Dawson, who had been with Frost for the past three years, has been hired by the New York Giants to take on the role of linebackers coach.

Dawson had spent the previous three seasons with Frost, from UCF for two seasons to last year with the Huskers in Lincoln. His departure to another job in the NFL had been rumored to be in the works for a while now, so this news was hardly surprising as the assistant coaching carousel between the NFL and college football continues to run rampant.

The #NYGiants have hired Mike Dawson as outside linebackers coach and Henry Baker as the assistant defensive backs coach.

“Coach Dawson informed me late last week he had chosen to accept a coaching position with the New York Giants,” Frost said in a released statement. “Mike has been a key part of our staff the past three seasons at Nebraska and UCF. He is a man of great character, an outstanding teacher, relates well to players and is a tremendous asset for any coaching staff.”

While Nebraska and Frost have typically been lucky not to have to deal with coaching staff turnover the past couple of seasons, the loss of Dawson is the kind of circumstance most coaches have to deal with at some point in time. How Frost goes about filling the new vacancy on the coaching staff remains to be seen, although he will likely want to find a replacement to coach the defensive line with spring practices already creeping up on the program.

And while Frost may not have had to deal with coaching turnover, a number of his players have. Nebraska will now employ its fourth defensive line coach in the past five seasons (including 2019) and fifth in since 2014. Frost would ideally like to find a defensive line coach that will stick around, although there is something to be said when you have coaches that are catching the eye of the NFL.

A week after losing his special teams boss to the NFL, James Franklin has found a replacement.

Penn State confirmed Thursday that Joe Lorig has been hired as Franklin’s new special teams coordinator. Lorig will also serve as an unspecified defensive assistant as part of Franklin’s Nittany Lions coaching staff.

The move to hire Lorig comes after Phil Galiano, who spent two years with the Nittany Lions, left earlier this month for a job in the NFL.

“We are looking forward to having Joe join our staff,” a statement from Franklin began. “We conducted a comprehensive study of special teams coordinators across the country to find the best fit for our staff and identified Joe as the best candidate. His special teams units have a history of being among the best in the country and we know he can continue that success here. I have also known Joe for many years, dating back to when we worked together at Idaho State under Larry Lewis.”

“I am extremely excited to join the staff at Penn State University and begin working with such a storied program,” Lorig said. “Penn State is a program with outstanding players, coaches and tradition. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Franklin and his entire coaching staff. My wife, three children and I are very appreciative of the opportunity to join the Nittany Lion family, and we look forward to helping Penn State win championships!”

The past three seasons, Lorig was the special teams coordinator at Memphis. He also served as the outside linebackers coach for the Tigers.

Rod Wright is officially returning to the state that helped launch his coaching career.

As had been speculated on over the last few days, UT-San Antonio has announced that Wright has been hired by Frank Wilson as the head coach’s new defensive line coach. Wright played his college football for the Texas Longhorns in the mid-aughts, earning All-American and All-Big 12 honors as a defensive lineman during his time in Austin.

“We are excited to announce Rod Wright as our new defensive line coach,” Wilson said in a statement. “He was an outstanding collegiate player and he has done an exceptional job mentoring defensive linemen everywhere he’s coached. We think he’s one of the best young coaches in the country and he will be a great addition to our staff.”

This past season, Wright served as the line coach at East Carolina, his first on-field role at the FBS level. Prior to that, he spent four seasons at FCS Sam Houston State.

Wright began his coaching career at his alma mater, working as a student assistant/defensive special assistant for three years at UT beginning in 2011.

The transfer train has made yet another stop in South Florida, and this one brought a passenger with a helluva high school pedigree with not a lot to show for yet on his college résumé.

In mid-December, it was reported that Jaelan Phillips would be transferring from UCLA. A little over two months later, Phillips announced on Twitter that he will continue his collegiate playing career at Miami.

The Wait is Over…Officially a HURRICANE 🙌🏽⛓🌴 I can’t wait to get to work, #TNM is going to be a problem for the opposition 🤞🏽💯 Thank you God for giving me a second chance 🙏🏾 the COMEBACK is going to be something serious pic.twitter.com/yWhfKJnUlL

Because of NCAA transfer rules, Phillips will likely have to sit out the 2019 season. He would then have two years of eligibility to use beginning in 2020.

Phillips was the No. 1-rated recruit in the entire country for the Class of 2017 on 247Sports.com‘s composite board. Despite that lofty ranking, although in large part due to injury, his collegiate career thus far hasn’t amounted to much.

As a true freshman, Phillips started four of the seven games in which he played. Despite missing nearly half the season because of an ankle injury, he finished fourth on the Bruins in tackles for loss with seven and second in sacks with 3.5. Battling additional injuries in 2018, including concussions, Phillips played in just four games this past season.

Phillips would be at least the seventh FBS player — and sixth from a Power Five program — to transfer to Miami since Manny Diaz took over at The U, joining USC safety Bubba Bolden (HERE), Virginia Tech defensive end Trevon Hill (HERE), Auburn running back Asa Martin (HERE), Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell (HERE), Buffalo wide receiver K.J. Osborn (HERE) as well as Phillips’ former UCLA teammate, defensive tackle Chigozie Nnoruka (HERE).

When a clip of Trevor Lawrence getting into a scuffle during an intramural basketball game went viral earlier this week, a chorus of takes screamed into the void asking what a college football player was doing playing basketball in the first place.

Dabo Swinney has always defended his players’ intramural endeavors, reasoning that unpaid college students should not be treated as employees. “They’re just having fun and enjoying being college people and doing what college kids do,” he said.

Swinney has defended this even in light of Jordan Williams, a potential starter at defensive tackle, suffering a leg injury during an intramural basketball game that will keep him out of a crucial spring for his development.

And now the basketball injury bug has struck another Clemson player.

Bryson Constantin, a 4-star linebacker signee in Clemson’s 2019 class, suffered a knee injury while playing for Baton Rouge’s University Lab High School basketball team last week — and he believes it could be serious.

“At a basketball game last week, I came down from an alley and I felt a pop in my knee,” Constantin told TigerNet. “I went to the ER that night to make sure it wasn’t like a knee cap or anything like that. They figured out it was most likely my ACL. I went for an MRI two days ago but I had too much blood in my knee to do an MRI, so they drained all the blood out and they were like, the only way you’d have this much blood in your knee is if you did tear your ACL. I go back for an MRI this weekend or Monday, so I’ll know for sure what it is coming up soon.”

While active college players playing intramural basketball is a (somewhat) controversial practice, incoming signees playing for their high school teams is not. Many a college coach has waxed poetically about falling in love with a player’s gridiron potential while watching him compete on the hardwood.

Still, it’s a cruel bit of irony: the only place the nation’s best football team seems to suffer any sort of defeat is on the basketball court.